I thought for sure that the minute Mr. Dover came back in the room, Jordyn would tell on me. But she didn’t. She just sat down in her desk and opened up her social studies book. I almost wish she had told on me, then I would have gotten in trouble and it would be over. Now I have to wait and see what Jordyn is going to do.

When Mr. Dover came back in the room, Kaley wasn’t with him. He just said, “Don’t worry, folks. She’s fine.” I don’t know how I made it through the rest of class. I felt so sick.

After the bell rang and everyone left, Mr. Dover asked me to stay after. That’s when I started to cry. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I really didn’t know.”

“Of course you didn’t,” Mr. Dover said. “You don’t have a mean bone in your body, Cora.” Then he hugged me for a long time until I stopped crying. When I finally stopped blubbering, I asked him what I should do.

“I’ve found saying sorry works most of the time,” he said, handing me a tissue from the box on his desk. “Especially if you truly feel bad and it’s obvious you do. It will all blow over.”

Well, it didn’t blow over. At lunch I tried to sit down next to Jordyn so I could tell her sorry, but she moved over so I couldn’t. I looked at Violet for help but she pretended she didn’t notice and kept right on eating her peanut butter sandwich. Everyone else gave me dirty looks and scooted over so I couldn’t sit next to them, either.

I looked around for Mrs. Morris, knowing that she would find me a place to sit, but she was busy yelling at a table of boys who were smashing their ketchup packets. I ended up just leaving the cafeteria and went to Mr. Dover’s room instead and asked him if I could sit there until the lunch period was over. He said sure and corrected papers while I tried not to cry.

The rest of the day was just as bad. Everyone whispered and gave me dirty looks when I walked by. Even the teachers looked at me funny. The worst part was I didn’t get a chance to apologize to Kaley. She must have gone to the nurse’s office or something because I didn’t see her the rest of the day.

What made it even worse was that now everyone knows I think Joseph is real. It’s so embarrassing.